School Days
by SomeRandomFicWriter
Summary: Ruby was living her dream, she recently got enrolled in Beacon Academy and jumped ahead by two years, however what she didn't think that she would also find was the love of her life. {Discontinued}
1. First Day Jitters

**I'll try and keep the retelling down to a minimum, in the meantime I'll try and update this Fic and the others as soon as humanly possible.**

"You want to come to my school?" Ozpin questioned.

"More than anything," Ruby replied, beaming back with determination.

Ozpin looked towards the woman to his left, after she shot a glare at him he look back at Ruby and nodded.

"Well alright then."

She could've swore she never smiled so wide in her life, she nodded back in reply and watched as both Ozpin and the Huntress exit the room with multiple thoughts racing through her mind.

* * *

Ruby looked out from the airship, feeling both excited and terrified at the same time. She thought back on what events that had transpired in the last couple of days. She was accepted into Beacon Academy two years early and after explaining it to her dad, he was shocked while Yang was thrilled that her younger sister would be attending Beacon at the same time as she was. It didn't help that she was already getting glances from other students around her, as much as she was excited that she was accepted into Beacon early she didn't want to stand out from the others. She was lost in her thoughts that she was startled when someone placed their hand on their shoulder.

"Hey Rubes why are you looking so gloomy? Aren't you excited?" Yang flashing one of her signature grins.

"Of course I'm excited, it just..."

"It's just what?" Yang raised an eyebrow at the redhead.

"I-I want to fit in Yang, most of the students on board think I shouldn't be here and some have been glaring like I'm some kind of lost child that got on the wrong airship."

She looked away from Yang to only to notice that more people were glaring at her, she turned away and desperately tried to hide in her red hoodie. Yang noticed her behavior, shot a glance at the starring crowd and instantly they looked away.

"Ruby," Yang placed both hands on her shoulder and looked at her, not breaking eye contact, "Don't worry about them, besides you have me remember?"

She stared back at Yang for a while, eventually breaking eye contact, slightly smiling to herself, "Yeah, I do. Thanks Yang, I really needed that."

"Hey we're family remember, we're supposed to look after each other."

Their conversation was cut short when a news report interrupted, it stated that the White Fang had attacked another dust transport resulting in multiple deaths. Before the casualties came up Yang pulled Ruby's hood down resulting in Ruby's surprise yelp. She got her hood off as the death report shifted to Glynda announcing that they'll arrive in a couple of minutes. As she pulled off her hood she glared and pouted at Yang for a moment only to stop as she felt as someone else was staring at her. As she turned around she saw a raven-haired girl with a black bow and a black cardigan walk off to the exit.

 _Who is she? Was she looking at me earlier?_

* * *

Blake was never fond of being in public places, mostly because she didn't want to be discovered as a Faunus. Even on here way to Beacon Academy, one of the most well known schools for both combat and education she didn't want to be hassled by anyone because of her cat ears. She sat in the back of the airship reading one of her books until the news announcement came up. Not wanting to listen to the Faunus backlash she closed her book and walked away from the holographic projections. She steered clear from groups of students that were discussing on how the Faunus are nothing but terrorists or how they're bellow humans and such, she eventually sat down in the mid-section of the airship waiting for the newscast to end. Her ears pricked up as she heard the news reporter mention the White Fang, instinctively she turned to the nearest holo projection only to see a blondie and a young girl with a red hoodie messing around. She almost pawned them off as immature until she saw how the older girl was watching the news while keeping the younger girl's hood over her head ensuring that she couldn't hear what was going on.

 _Is she trying to protect her from the news? Also why is she even here, isn't she a high schooler?_

As she tried to organize her thoughts on why she was on this transport to Beacon, she didn't stop staring at the young girl until she pulled off her hood and pouted at the older girl. She looked cute as she made a pouty face at the other girl. Her train of thought was interrupted by Glynda's message to prepare to exit the airship, immediately she made her way towards the exit.

 _I wonder if she's a student, no she looks too young to attend her and besides what would be her weapon? Would she used something small like pistols or daggers, or does she use a long-ranged rifle?_

She looked back at the young girl only to have amber eyes catch silver ones, for a while their eyes locked until a someone walked in front of them dragging along her friend towards the windows.

 _Did she...smile at me? No no no, it probably was your imagination_

She spun around towards the exit, only to barely run into someone else.

"Hey watch where you're going you dolt!" She angrily yelled.

"Sorry," Blake looked away from the glaring gaze of her. She took a couple steps back from the angry student and waited for her to exit the airship first. She took one last look around the airship for a chance to see the brunette again, only to shake her head.

 _Why are you so interested in her? She probably isn't even a student_

With one last look with no avail she stepped out of the airship and onto the landing pad.

* * *

"Hey Rubes? You okay?" Yang waved her hand back and forth in Ruby's face.

"Guh, yeah I'm fine." She quickly recovered and flashed a grin at Yang, "Why is something wrong?"

"Well, I was talking to you about the dorms and such but you looked off towards the distance with a dopey smile." Yang raised her eyebrow and with a smug grin, "Did you find someone interesting?"

Ruby quickly turned away from Yang desperately trying to hide a small blush that appeared on her cheeks. Yang laughed at her sister's embarrassed state and patted her on the back.

"It's ok if you don't want to talk about it sis."

"Shut up," Ruby whispered.

Both sisters stepped onto the landing pad and strode towards the gate. If she thought Signal Academy was big, then Beacon was gigantic! She walked along the main road towards the school stopping to take in the whole campus as it stretched far and wide. They had separate buildings that were for each particular subject besides the main tower in the center of the campus. They both passed the garden and Ruby stopped to look at the statue in the front of the tower, before walking into the main building Yang stopped her sister right outside the doors.

"I'm proud of you sis."

"What for Yang?" She turned towards Yang with an eyebrow raised.

"My baby sister jumped ahead two years, got accepted into Beacon, and-" Yang wrapped one of her arms around Ruby's neck, putting her into a headlock, "She's going at the same time as me!"

"Wha- Yang!" She flailed her arms in desperation, hoping that she could get out of her sister's grip. Eventually Yang let go and she glared at her. "Not funny."

Yang lightly shoved her with a big grin on her face, "Come on, it was kinda funny-" Ruby shoved her back, looking away from her as if she was mad.

"Hey Rubes?" Yang tried stepping in front of her trying to catch her gaze, only for the younger sister to turn in another direction with a pout on her face. "Heyyyy Rubes? Rubes?"

Still avoiding her, Yang sighed for a moment before trying something else. With nothing coming to her mind she sighed again and shoved Ruby with a little more force than her last one. Ruby however was caught by surprise by this and fell backwards, crashing into someone as she fell. She wasn't sure what she hit until she heard a loud screech and an angry voice that soon came after.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING YOU DOLT!" She screamed at her.

Ruby sat up and looked at the student that she bumped into, her glare was as cold as ice as she made eye contact. She had pale blue eyes, white hair, and was wearing a white jacket and matching skirt with a brown splatter on it. Realizing what just happened, she shot up quickly apologizing to her.

"Do you know how much this was?!"

Ruby shook her head.

"A lot more than what you make, why are you even here?! Children like you shouldn't even be here."

"Hey I said I was sorry princess!" She shot back.

"It's Heiress actually." She retorted.

"Whatever, if you're such a noble then why are you acting like a spoile-"

"Okay break it up you two." Yang quickly interrupted, "Rubes I'm going to get her cleaned off, could you save us some seats in the main hall?"

"Sure Yang, don't take too long," She turned towards the door stepping inside.

After Ruby stepped inside, they both walked towards the girl's restroom trying to clean off the stain.

* * *

She sat down in the back, close enough to the stage and far enough from everyone else. She took off her hoodie and sat down covering three chairs for Yang and the student. It's been fifthteen minutes since she entered and both of them were nowhere to be seen. She was starting to get anxious that they would get here on time.

 _What would happen if they don't get here on time? Would they be in trouble? Oum it's my fault that this happened_

She was lost in her thoughts that she didn't noticed that someone was watching her from afar.

* * *

Blake was sitting in the main hall for quite a while. After getting off the airship she met with Sun and his friend named Neptune, who seemed to be a nice person. She pulled out her book waiting for the welcoming speech, but stopped when she heard someone scream outside. She looked around to see no one else noticed, she would've check on who was in trouble but her mind stopped when she saw the girl from before walk into the room. She watched her look around for a bit and stopped somewhere across the room putting her hoodie on one chair then covering two others. She reluctantly got up from her seat and made her way towards the the redhead.

 _Blake what are you even doing? She's just a random stranger, but what makes her so interesting?_

She shook off that thought only to see that she was standing right next to the brunette, apparently she didn't realize that Blake stood next to her. She gave a small cough that broke her out of her trance.

"Uh hello," the redhead gave a small wave to the older girl. She gave a friendly wave back and gestured to one of the chairs.

"Are these taken?"

"Oh, um those two are taken but I think no one is sitting here," She pointed to the seat next to her.

"Thank you," She dropped her bag in front of the chair as she sat down, they both sat in silence for a while until she broke the silence.

"So, are you a student?" Blake looked at the brunette with an eyebrow raised.

"Yep! I'm enrolling this year with everyone here." She flashed a grin at her.

"Really?" Blake stared at her in disbelief, only for the young girl to nod her head.

"Well I'm Ruby!" She held her hand out to Blake.

"I'm Blake, nice to meet you." She took her hand and lightly shook with a small grin on her face.

Ruby was about to say something until the blondie from earlier accompanied by a white-haired girl walked up to them.

* * *

"Hey Rubes! Who's your new friend?" Yang sat down next to Ruby.

"Her name is Blake! How was-" She stopped as she saw a faint red mark on her face, "Yang? What happened?"

"I uh, told her what happened earlier. You know when you crash into her at the entrance."

"And she slapped you because of it?"

"No she slapped me because-" She was interrupted with a small slap on the arm by the white-haired student sitting next to her.

"Yang, I thought we promised not to discuss this…" She whispered as she turned her head away from the group.

"Right, right. Sorry Weiss."

"Weiss, as in Weiss Schnee?" Blake asked, causing all three of the girls to look in her direction.

"Yes, I am the heiress of the Schnee family."

Both Ruby and Yang looked at her with their eyebrows raised.

"What?"

"I'm sorry, but you? When we first met you starting acting like a child," Ruby brought up earning a chuckle from both Blake and Yang.

"That's because you crashed into me spilling my coffee you little-"

Their conversation cut short when a man walked onto the stage and began tapping the mic gaining everyone's attention.

"I'll keep this brief, You have traveled here today in search of knowledge to hone your craft and acquire new skills. And when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step."

As he walked off the stage, Glynda took his place and began instructing students to meet in the next room to drop off their bags and that they could explore the campus until they call everyone back. As everyone was getting up to leave Glynda tapped Ruby on the shoulder before she left the hall.

"Miss Rose, a word please," Glynda nodded her head towards one of the elevators.

"Sure," She turned towards Yang and the others, "Hey, I'll be back don't wait for me."

"Okay sis, come on you heard her." Yang pulled both Blake and Weiss out of the hall leaving Ruby alone with Glynda.

Once they left, both Ruby and Glynda walked towards the open elevators. It took a while to reach the top floor where Ozpin was waiting in his chair waiting for her to arrive.

"Now then, lets begin." He stated as the elevator doors close behind her.

* * *

Throughout the whole day, the trio explored most of the campus. They settled at a small cafe near the garden discussing their courses and interests.

"So you take literature and arts?" Weiss looked at Blake who nodded in response. "And you're in Biomedical engineering and robotics?"

Yang flashed a grin at the white-haired girl, "Engineering runs in our blood, besides prosthetics are cool."

"What classes are you taking Weiss?" Blake questioned.

She looked at both of them in the eyes with a smug look, "I'm in Chemistry, Financing, and Marketing."

When she got no reactions from both of them she sat back down, with an embarrassed look on her dace and a slight blush. They all sat in awkward silence until the waiter brought their drinks to the table. Weiss and Yang both ordered coffee while Blake ordered tea, they all sat there until Blake heard somebody running towards their direction. She was expecting to see Ruby, but was taken aback when the trio saw a blond boy panting as he looked like he ran a marathon.

"Are- any of- you Yang Xiao- Long?"

Yang stood up immediately and walked over to the boy. "That's me, who are you?"

"No time to- explain." He pointed in the direction of the cafeteria, "Your- sister-"

Yang took off after hearing those two words, she didn't need to hear anymore to understand that her little sister was in danger. Weiss stayed behind to check on the tired boy while Blake followed Yang towards the cafeteria. It wasn't long until they both heard voices, one belonging to Ruby and the others to other male students.

"Leave her alone!" Ruby shouted at the leader of the group.

"Or what? You're gonna tell momma on us?" He snarked back with his little entourage laughing with him.

When Yang and Blake turned the corner, both of them were shocked to see the sight before them, Ruby was protecting a bunny Faunus while covered in bruises and cuts while the group surrounding them.

"Aww, I think she's going to cry." One of the bullies jeered to his friends.

"Yeah! I bet tha-" Yang grabbed him by the arm and slamming him to the nearest wall, leaving a crack in the brick wall. Blake followed suit, grabbing one of the other bullies and tossing him into one of the other bullies leaving the leader by himself.

"Just who do you think-" He was cut off by Ruby who got behind him and delivered a sharp kick in the back. He spun around and tried to punch her in the face, only for her to duck and slam her boot on his foot. As he recoiled in pain, she stood up and head-butted him knocking him out. As he fell the two remaining bullies got up and ran, leaving the unconscious ones behind in fear of what would happen if they stuck around longer. After waiting to see if they would come back Ruby fell on her knees with her back against the wall.

"Thank you Yang, thank you Blake-" She said as she passed out. Blake rushed over to her catching her before she hit the pavement while Yang went over to check on the Faunus. Blake put her head against Ruby's chest, sighing in relief when she heard her heart was still beating then she looked over her bruises and cuts.

 _They're not deep but we need to clean them soon_

"Hey Blake?" Yang called from where she was helping the Faunus.

"Coming," Blake replied back, she picked up Ruby and carried her on her back as she made her way to Yang, "What's wrong?"

"Do you remember where the dorms were?"

"Yes, they were across from the gardens nearby the east docks."

"Thanks, I'm going to help her get back to the dorms." She helped lift the Faunus up and supported her by putting her arm around her shoulder, "Blake can you get Ruby to the nurse, then to the main hall?"

Blake nodded in response as she made her way towards the main hall.

* * *

She didn't know how long she was out until she woke up. She was covered in bandages and an ice pack was applied to where the bruises were, she tried sitting up only for her body to groan in pain until she slumped back on the sleep mat. She tried looking around only seeing other students either asleep or quietly whispering in small groups.

 _Okay, where am I?_

She tried again to sit upright, this time succeeding, she got a good look around and saw she was in the main hall and that all the new students were coming in to retire for the night. She was startled when she heard something behind her, she quickly turned around and saw Weiss and Blake talking about something. The only words she were able to pick up were infections and something about her physical state.

"I'm fine, just a couple of scratches. That's all." She startled both of them. Suddenly both if them rushed over to the injured girl making sure she didn't strain herself.

"Are you alright?" Blake sat next to her while Weiss applied another bag of ice on her bruises. Ruby nodded her head in reply.

"What happened?" Weiss asked as she replaced the almost melted ice bag with a fresh one. She then looked at Ruby who seemed to be uncomfortable at the moment. She stayed like that for a while until she spoke up.

"Do you both remember when I went with Glynda?" She waited until both of them nodded their heads, "When I finished I went to look for you guys but-"

She was cut off when Yang walked in tossing a pillow at Weiss, knocking over her in the process, "Found a spare pillow Wei- Oh! Hey Ruby."

"Hey Yang," She waited for Weiss and Yang to settle down before continuing, "As I was saying, when I was looking for you guys I saw a group of students bully a Faunus near the cafeteria."

Blake felt her ears go down, it seems that anywhere she goes there are always racists against Faunus. She broke out of her trance as soon as Ruby continued.

"-I stepped in to stop them, tried telling them off but-" She looked down with tears caught in her eyes, "They started harassing the both of us, tossing rocks, and calling us nasty insults-" Her voice trailed off as she broke into tears.

"Ruby..." Yang tried comforting her sister by hugging her, signaling both Weiss and Blake to join in. After sitting there for a while, Ruby calmed down wiping away the remaining tears.

"I'm- sorry, I shouldn't have broken down like that-"

"Don't apologize Ruby, you did nothing wrong." Blake spoke up, "You did the right thing."

"Thank you," They all separated and went back to their sleeping bags after seeing the remaining students enter the main hall.

"We should all probably sleep, we have a big day tomorrow," Weiss brought up.

"Yeah, see you all in the morning." Yang replied as she crashed in her sleeping bag.

"Good night," Ruby pulled the sleeping bag over her before putting on her Grimm sleeping blinders.


	2. Building Bridges and Relationships

Ruby woke up after being shaken by her sister, desperately trying to fight off her sleepiness she slapped her face with both of her hands. She heard a couple of giggles from the three girls in front of her. She looked away with a flustered look on her face.

Blake was the first to recover from her laughter and was very thankful that the little redhead didn't noticed her small blush.

After everyone packed up their essentials, they all moved into the cafeteria when they finished brushing their teeth. They sat down with Blake and Weiss sitting across from Ruby and Yang.

"Ruby, why do you only have cookies?" Weiss questionably looked at Ruby's plate then at the brunette.

"Why not?" She began eating the chocolate-chip cookies.

"It's just tha-" she stopped short after Yang shot her a glare. "-never mind."

Ruby was about to say something but her eyes traveled across the room being fixated on something. Everyone turned their heads in the direction of where she was looking only to lay their eyes on Professor Ozpin who was standing at the main door looking at the four. He waved them over, then walking out. The four quickly finished their meals and went outside, after the caught up to him Glynda arrived shortly after.

"Weiss Schnee, Ruby Rose, Yang Xiao Long, and Blake Belladonna, you all are being assigned a dorm." Glynda announced.

"Due to your actions yesterday, both Glynda and I have decided to move all of you into the same dorm room." Ozpin followed up.

All of them stood there dumbfounded, most of them knew how the dorm room choosing was random yet here they are being offered one, ahead of schedule even.

"I'll take that as a yes?" Opzin questioned, resulting in all of the girls to nod in union.

"Your room will be G17," Glynda sent each of them the room code to their scrolls, "All of your luggages should already be inside."

That being said both Ozpin and Glynda walked off towards the CCT tower.

"So... who wants to check out our room?" Ruby asked in a small tone.

* * *

Walking through the dorm felt off. Most of the students were being checked into rooms at the tower while Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang were already moving in. Their dorm room was comprised of six rooms, one main room connecting to each of the other rooms which were one bathroom and four small workshops. The main room had four beds and empty shelves while each of the workshops had tool racks and a small table in the center. Weiss and Blake began to unpack while Ruby moved into one of the workshops quickly settling in. Yang hung up posters, Blake filled up the empty shelves with various books and Weiss began settling in to the workshop opposite from Ruby's.

"I didn't know you enjoyed books," Ruby walked out of her workshop and stared at all the books Blake stacked on the shelves. "What kind of books do you like to read?"

"I love reading romance novels, otherwise I don't really have a preference." Blake placed a stack of books on a desk, realizing which book was on top she quickly snatched it and moved it away from Ruby's view.

"I like reading, especially fairy tales," She continued as she grabbed a metal case and moving it into her Workshop. That caught Blake's ears, she was about to ask Ruby if she wanted to go to the library sometime until Weiss started yelling.

"Yang! What did you do?!"

Not wanting to deal with the Ice Queen's wrath, both Ruby and Blake retreated into Ruby's Workshop closing the door behind them. Even with the door closed they can hear the muffled argument between the two. Blake looked around the small Workshop and was quite impressed of the redhead had done so far, she organized a small tool rack on the side, she set up three different tables that each had different parts of a massive weapon that she couldn't make out at the moment, and had set up a grinding stone in the back corner. She stopped looking around when the yelling outside suddenly stopped.

"Do you think they're finished?" Ruby said in a light voice.

"Maybe, should we check?"

The brunette nodded and they both walked towards the door. When they opened the door, both of them were shocked by the sight in front of them. Yang and Weiss stopped arguing and were caught kissing each other. Ruby ran out of the dorm room with Blake in tow while Yang was trying to apologize with Weiss blushing as dark as Ruby's surname.

* * *

After a couple of detours, Ruby and Blake arrived at the library. After chasing down Ruby and apologizing on the scroll, both Ruby and Blake decided to visit the library in hopes to try and forget today's event.

"Do you think they would have any fantasy books?" She peaked from one of the many bookshelves.

"I believe so, maybe it's on the second floor." Blake picked up a book, looked at it for a moment then placed back in the shelf.

"I don't know if it's on th-"

"Hey Red!" Someone called out from behind her. Ruby stood up straight, slightly terrified of why someone was calling to her.

Is it another bully? Did they come here for revenge? What do I do, what do I do?!

Before she could think the stranger stood in front of her. She was wearing sunglasses and a beret, with a handbag strapped on her shoulder.

"You're the one who helped the Faunus yesterday, right? She looked at her with an unwavering gaze, she slowly nodded afraid of what the older girl who do. She was slightly surprised when the she held out her hand, "Thank you for dealing with those idiots, Velvet got separated from us and we couldn't find her until your blond friend came by."

"It was no problem." She shook her hand with a firm grip, "I'm Ruby, what's your name?"

"The name's Coco, are you a student here?"

"Yes, I am," She tried to sound confident, "Are you also a new student?"

"I'm a third-year actually. I swear you new transfers get younger every year."

"Nope, I got enrolled two years early." She started twiddling her fingers.

"Really? Never heard of any student applying early."

"Hey Ruby, I found som-" Blake stopped a few feet away from Ruby and Coco holding a small book bag, "Who's your friend?"

"I'm Coco, i heard that you're also responsible for saving our bunny?" Coco held out her hand just as she did with Ruby.

"Ruby was the one who helped her, Yang and I arrived a while later after someone told us that she was in trouble."

"Well you helped out in the end, that's all that matters." Coco patted her on the shoulder, "Hey, maybe next time we could show them what it feels to be in the receiving end?"

Both Ruby and Blake chuckled in response with Blake being first to recover. "Sure, that would be quite a sight."

Coco gave a small wave before leaving the library, they both waved back and went back into the library in search of a couple more books.

* * *

"I really hope that Ruby doesn't act weird around us..." Yang picked up her tray from the counter.

"It's your fault that you started it." Weiss looked away with a flustered look on her face.

"Hey, in my defense I thought they left the room." She was about to sit down until something caught her eyes across the room. Weiss tried looking in where she was looking at but with no avail.

"What's wrong?" Weiss tapped Yang on the shoulder.

"Isn't that the guy from yesterday?" She pointed towards one of the far tables in the back where the blond boy was sitting with a redhead girl who were in a conversation with another guy with a pink streak in his hair and an orange-haired girl who was clinging his arm.

"Yeah, I believe so. Why d-" Weiss didn't get to finish as Yang dragged her across the cafeteria until they stood in front of their table.

"-so how are we going to divide the room and- oh, can I help you?" The blond turned towards their direction.

"Do you mind if we sit here?" She gestured towards the table.

"No-no it's fine. If you don't mind me asking but where were you guys during the registration earlier?"

"Registrations? For what?" Weiss sat down looking at the him.

"For our dorm rooms? The whole morning everyone was being assigned their rooms and their roommates." He replied back.

"But I thought-"

"We got our room early." Yang interrupted. "We were unpacking everything in the morning."

"Really?!" The orange-haired girl spoke up, "They gave you guys a room already?!"

"Y-yes we moved in already." Weiss suddenly taken aback by the orange girl's loudness.

"What room did are you all get?!"

"Nora behave."

"Sorry, but what room did you all get!"

"I think we got room G17." Yang pulled out her scroll for confirmation.

"Really, well it looks like we're neighbors!" Nora flashed her scroll showing the room number G16.

"That's nice, I'm Yang Xiao Long and this is Weiss Schnee." Who bowed in response to her name.

"I'm Jaune Ark, this is Pyrrha Nikos, Nora Valkyrie, and Lie Ren." He pointed to each of them as he introduced them.

"Who are your other roommates?" Pyrrha chimed in.

"They're Blake and my little sister Ruby Rose."

"Will we get to meet them?" Ren asked.

"Eventually, when they show up." Weiss grumbled.

They all sat quietly eating their lunches, until Nora finally broke the silence.

"Soooo, did yall hear about the sparring classes?"

"Aren't you suppose to bring your own custom weapon for those?" Jaune asked.

"Yep! My Magnhild and I are going to break some bones in there!" Nora placed a large metal case on the table covered in pink hearts and small lightning bolts.

"Nora no weapons on the table."

"Sorry Ren." Nora placed the case next to her feet, "So what are your guys weapons?"

"My weapon is a- hold on," Jaune pulled out his buzzing scroll and opened up the notifications, "Is it just me or does it seem that the White Fang is always on the news?"

"What do you mean?" Pyrrha looked at him with an eyebrow raised.

"It's just that, up until now we barely heard anything about the terrorist group."

"Yeah, it so bad that even the local police began investigating the Faunus living in the rural areas." Nora brought up.

"But aren't the White Fang a group of Faunus that are fighting for Faunus Rights?" Pyrrha looked at both of them with more confusion than before.

"The White Fang are just a bunch of liars, thieves, and murderers. A group of degenerates who focus on violence and murder rather than negotiating for peace."

Everyone turned towards the voice who spoke, only to see Weiss looking down on the table with a distraught look in her eyes.

"Weiss you okay there?" Yang looked at her with more concern than shock.

"I-I'm fine, sorry." Weiss turned away only to be pulled into a hug by Yang.

"There there," Yang patted her back. Weiss was about to say something but was stopped and enjoyed the comfort that she was in, until Ruby came over.

"Hey Weiss, hey Yang!" She sat down placing her tray of cookies on the table and took off her red hoodie, "Who are your new friends?"

"I'll explain later, Weiss and I are going to head back to the dorm."

"Alright, catch you later." She watched them both leave then turned towards the others, "So... hi?"

"You look a lot younger than I thought," Nora kept looking at Ruby with one of her eyebrows raised, "Are you using makeup? Or is it genetic? Ooh don't tell me, you have a secret way to make yourself look younger?!"

"Actually..." Ruby paused slightly before continuing on her story.

* * *

"They seem nice," Ruby and Blake were walking through one of the many gardens that Beacon provided, there weren't many students walking through the garden as most were setting up in the dorms at the moment leaving the black and red duo strolling through the empty garden. After lunch was over they waved their goodbyes and Blake showed Ruby the rest of the school that she couldn't see the day prior. "Who do you think maintains all these gardens? There are so many of them."

"I don't know, maybe we can ask one of the teachers tomorrow," Blake joked.

"Maybe," a buzzing sound interrupted the silence around them as Ruby scrambled to get her scroll from her pocket. She looked over the message and her eyes lit up as she read it. "I'm sorry Blake but I have to go."

"Why? What's wrong?"

"Something came in the mail for me," She pocketed her scroll and started to turned towards the dorms, "It was fun hanging out with you, maybe we can do it again sometime?!" She yelled as she started to run towards the dorms.

Blake watched the redhead ran off as she stood there feeling slightly depressed to see her leave. The feeling was short lived however as she felt someone lightly tap her shoulder from behind her.

"Hey kitty cat."

Blake turned around to see a another student who was wearing a shirt that revealed his abs and was waving his monkey tail from behind him. "It's nice to see you too Sun."

"Whatcha doing here? Shouldn't you be with your roommates unpacking in the dorms?"

"I could ask the same," Blake took a look around for any other students that were still in the garden. After checking again and happy that there weren't any she turned back to Sun, "It's been a while Sun, how's your roommates?"

'Oh they're nice, they don't mind me being a Faunus and all as well which is a plus." Sun looked around for any other students, "You know you don't need to wear that here." He pointed towards her bow.

"It's just a safety net, there are students here that are still racist towards us."

'Really? I thought that Beacon was a safe place for both humans and Faunus." Sun looked at her in dismay, "It's like wherever we go in the four kingdoms, there's nowhere that's safe for the Faunus."

"It doesn't help that the White Fang are becoming more active too," Blake's ears dropped slightly just mentioning that, "Do you, even think that we will ever be treated equally by the humans?"

"It's possible, I mean Sage said he saw a human girl yesterday that tried helping out another Faunus from bullies." Sun tried to brighten the mood.

Blake shot him a curious look with one eyebrow raised.

"It's true! Sage said he saw a young girl standing up for a Faunus the other day." Sun wasn't sure if the other Faunus actually believed him. Both of them stood there in awkward silence of a while, trying to change the topic Sun spoke up again, "Soo... when are you going to tell your roommates that you're a Faunus?"

"I-I don't know, I'm not sure if they like the Faunus or think that they're going to react poorly with it."

"Come on, it can't be that bad."

"I have a Schnee as a roommate Sun."

"I retract that previous statement." Sun quickly replied.

Blake looked at her scroll for the time, it's barely evening yet it looks as the rest of the upperclassmen are starting to head back to the dorm rooms.

"It's getting late, we should head back to our rooms."

"Yeah alright, it was nice catching up Blake."

"Likewise Sun, see you again sometime."

"You too! And stop acting like a loner sometimes, besides Weiss you have two other friends with you that you can get along with."

Blake nodded in reply before heading back towards the her room.

I wonder what they would think of me if they knew I was a Faunus?

Blake already saw Ruby helping out another Faunus, but she didn't know if was just in the moment or that she truly wasn't a Faunus hater. All of these thoughts however quickly stopped as she heard drilling from outside the room. With her additional ears or not the drilling was quite audible from inside the room, Blake swiped her scroll across the scanner and quickly stepped inside. The noise was coming from Ruby's workshop, Yang nor Weiss was in the room so it had to be Ruby who was working on something in there. She knocked on Ruby's door, and waited for a response. After a while with no response she knocked again slightly louder, she heard something fall behind the door and after a little bit the door opened with a familiar brunette peeking through.

"Oh hey Blake! Can I help you?"

"What's with the drilling?" Blake shot a curious look at her.

"Uh, just adding some attachments to my workshop. I promise that this is the only time that it will be this loud." She flashed a cheerful grin at Blake, "Is there anything else you need?"

"Two things actually. Where's Yang and Weiss?"

"I don't know, they weren't here when I got back." She looked around the room scanning to see if they left a note or not, "Maybe they went out for a stroll?"

"I'll ask them when they get back, and the last thing is- do you want- to go to the library again sometime?" Blake scratched the back of her head while nervously looking away from Ruby.

"Sure! Maybe we can find some more books that you like, alright nice talking to you Blake."

"You too Ruby," Blake watched her go back into her workshop and after a while the drilling continued. Blake walked over to her bed and slipped on her earbuds, trying to cancel out the loud noises that was echoing around the room.

How am I going to tell them, especially Ruby?

She looked back towards Ruby's workshop, she'll tell them when the time comes. Hopefully she'll be prepared to tell them by then, right?

* * *

"Do you think we should head back now Yang?" Weiss and Yang stopped near the cafe that they stopped at yesterday. "It's getting late and we start up classes tomorrow."

"Hey Weiss, 10 lien says that Ruby will ask out first." Yang looked at Weiss with a smug look while Weiss looked back at her in confusion.

"What are you talking about Yang? Ask who out first?"

"You'll know," Yang pulled out her scroll and looked at the time, "Yeahhh we should probably head back now."

"You're the one who dragged us both out here."

"I know."


	3. Classes, Sparring, Pent Up Feelings

"I thought that class would never end." Ruby sighed as she sat down at the cafeteria table. "I thought I enrolled for Chemistry, not pointless lectures on how he did got his masters."

"It wasn't that bad Ruby," Weiss sat next to her, placing her tray down as she spoke, "Professor Port is a... _riveting_ teacher but his information on Chemistry is great."

"Yeah, when he finally gets around to it." She placed her head on her arms and puts her hood over it, "What's next?"

"I believe that after lunch, everyone that applied for combat classes goes to the Sparring Hall,"

"Wait really?!" The brunette shot up with excitement.

"I do believe that we bring our custom weapons as well."

"After lunch we have a short amount of time to collect our weapons from our rooms in case anyone forgot," Blake joined in as she sat across from Ruby and Weiss.

"Hi Blake!"

"Hello Blake." Weiss followed up, "Where's Yang?"

"I believe she's still in line for-"

"Somebody called?" Yang plopped down next to Blake, "Sooo do you think that we're going to spar today?"

"It could happen but the chances so far are somewhat low." Weiss turned towards the excited red koala, "Speaking of which, what is your weapon?"

"Uhm...," the redhead suddenly became very quiet.

"What is your weapon Rubes?" Yang raised an eyebrow at her, "Even at home you kept your weapon a secret, from me and dad."

"I-I'll show it when it's complete." She looked away in embarrassment, "It's not done ye-"

"What do you mean that it's not complete?" Weiss glared at her, "All students must have their weapons fully complete and customized before even enrolling into the combat classes."

"Listen, I'll explain everything later okay?"

"You better keep your word Ruby," Weiss turned back towards Yang and Blake, "Should we start heading towards the training hall?"

"We should," Blake stood up with her bag on her shoulder, "See you in the hall Ruby."

"You too." Ruby stood up and walked towards the exit.

The training hall was filled with many students all ready with their weapons and armor. The sparring ring was shaped similar to a coliseum, a large arena in the middle with stands surrounding it from all sides with a huge holographic display overhead. Ruby sat away from most of the students feeling slightly unprepared as she was still wearing her school uniform while everyone else was changed into their armor. She got a couple of strange looks from the students around her, some she can barely hear talking about her. She was slightly wishing that she wasn't there, maybe she should just leave? No that would add to the commotion, should she just stay and watch? She was lost in her doubts until she felt someone tapping on her shoulder, she turned to expect another student but sighed in relief as she saw that it was Yang.

"You okay Rubes? You look a little pale," Yang was dressed in her biker's jacket and her very familiar golden bracelets.

"I'm fine Yang," She answered quietly, "I just feel out of place here."

"Don't feel too bad, many of the students here are also very nervous too," Weiss cut in, "Anyway does anyone know who's the teacher for this class?"

"I heard that the teacher is Goodwitch," Yang looked around for the blond instructor but couldn't find her.

"This is going to be interesting," Blake said in an irritated voice as she stared across the room, everyone followed where her eyes were and were annoyed with what they saw. Ruby and Yang both recognized the group of bullies that they met on the first day, all wearing armor that resembled knight's armor but with bird insignias on the chest piece.

"Great, they're in the same class with us?" Yang huffed as she sat down.

"Wait are they..." Weiss looked at all of them with confusion as she sat next to Yang.

"They're the ones who bullied Ruby and another student." Yang answered.

"Really?! Ruby was bullied by them?!" Nora popped up from behind them, startling all of them.

"Sorry, Nora was with us then she suddenly ran off." Ren followed behind her with Jaune and Pyrrha in tow.

"Hey Ruby? Why aren't you in your combat outfit yet?" Jaune looked at her to see that she was still in her school uniform with her bag next to her feet.

"I'll tell you after class okay?" She looked back towards the arena and saw that Miss Goodwitch was standing in the center looking straight at her.

"Miss Rose, you are excused." Glynda signed something on her scroll before looking up again at her.

"Bu-but," She tried to speak up but Glynda held up her hand to stop her. With a defeated sigh she exited the training hall, stirring up commotion behind her as she closed the door.

"Looks like the little girl couldn't handle playing with the big kids."

"You have to feel bad for her, getting mixed up with the advanced students."

"Do you think that someone else's transfer papers got mixed with hers?"

Yang could barely suppress her anger as everyone kept on talking about Ruby, her eyes changed from lilac to blood red and her hair looked as it was slightly burning. She almost lost it until she felt someone wrapped their arms around her.

"Yang, don't do it." Weiss was hugging Yang hoping that it would calm her down a little, "You know more than everyone that Ruby wouldn't want to come back with her sister in detention or worse expelled."

Yang looked at her for a moment, then towards the gossiping students for one last time. Her breathing returned to normal and her eyes changed back to lilac. "I swear that if I matched against them in the pit, I'm going to break them."

The group relaxed as they thought that Yang was going to jump out at the crowd, Blake looked towards the exit then back towards the arena as Glynda got everyone's attention.

"Alright settle down everyone, as most of you already know welcome to the combat course." Glynda typed something on her scroll, turning on the holographic display behind her. "For this week you'll be choosing your sparring partner, you may change partners whenever you want only once per day."

Glynda waited for everyone to quiet down again before resuming, "Before we get started I would like two volunteers to help demonstrate."

"I'll go, some people need to be put in their place after all."

Glynda straighten her glasses as she looked between he scroll and the student, "Cardin Winchester, is that correct?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Okay then, who would lik-"

"Ooh, ooh me pick me!" Nora waved her hand.

"Nora Valkyrie, alright then you two get ready and we'll start the sparring session."

* * *

Cardin and Nora both stood at the opposite ends of the arena from each other, both haven't looked away from each other's gaze as the timer was ticking down. Nora held a grenade launcher while Cardin was wielding his dust mace.

"Don't think that just because you're a girl that I'm going to go easy on you." Cardin shouted from across the arena.

"Please, you probably can't even kill a baby Beowulf." Nora retorted.

Both of them kept on glancing between the timer and each other, waiting for the buzzer to start the duel. As the timer hit zero, Cardin immediately rushes forward, sidestepping to avoid Nora's grenades. Nora shot twice at him only for him to dodge out of the way. Cardin slowly closed the gap between them and in no time he was almost in striking distance.

"You're mine BI-" He was cut off as he felt the air get knocked out of his lungs. Cardin was flung across the arena crashing against the wall, everyone winced at what they were seeing. Cardin used the wall for support as he was recovering from the last attack.

"As you can see students, each individual has their own level of aura as shown by Miss Valkyrie and Mister Winchester." Glynda pointed towards the projection revealing that Cardin's aura level has less than half remaining. "Your aura absorbs most of the damage, not counting elemental damage. Once your aura enters the red zone you lose, Miss Valkyrie if you would."

"With pleasure!" Nora wore a huge grin while wielding her Warhammer.

Cardin raised his mace trying to think of a way to counter her, in a desperate attempt he struck the ground hoping that some of the debris would hit her as he closed in, but Nora used her hammer to slam back the debris at him with one piece hitting him square in the face. Cardin's aura level dropped into the red as he slumped to the ground, signifying that the match was over.

"Thank you Miss Valkyrie, now then students." Glynda refreshed the projection and repaired the arena in record time, "Which pair would like to go next?"

* * *

"That was the most entertaining thing I've ever watched," Yang chuckled at the sight of Cardin being flung off into the distance by Nora's hammer.

"It's a shame that we couldn't do it ourselves." Weiss added, "Next time he volunteers, one of us should beat him to a pulp."

The trio were walking back to the dorms, with JNPR following behind them.

"He had it coming." Blake commented as she pulled out her scroll.

"Did you see the look on his face when I slammed him with my Magnhild?!" Nora was hopping up and down.

"Pretty hard to miss." Pyrrha chuckled as she remembered the sight.

"Do you think that he'll hold a grudge?" Jaune asked.

"Probably, Oh! Maybe we can break his legs."

"That would probably get us expelled Nora." Ren added as he swiped his scroll over the door lock, opening it in the process.

"Alright take care you guys." Yang waved them off as they disappeared into their dorm.

"That went rather well, in addition with an interesting show at the beginning." Weiss stood next to Blake as she opened the door to their dorm, "How do you think he'll recover from that?"

"Give it time, he'll probably make up a lame excuse for it." Blake stepped into the dorm, noticing how nothing was changed from when they left in the morning, "Hey, what happened to Ruby?"

Both Weiss and Yang stepped into the dorm looking to see if the brunette had left any indication that she left or not.

"Huh, did she leave a note," Yang checked her bed for a note, then checked Ruby's if she left her bag, "Did she go somewhere?"

Weiss knocked on Ruby's workshop door, not receiving an answer for a while, she knocked again but with no avail. "Should we call her just in case?"

Blake pulled out her scroll and began scrolling down her contacts list, she sighed in frustration as she put it down. "Did anyone get Ruby's number?"

"Let me chec- nope," Yang checked her scroll, rechecking her contacts list again, "I think we forgot to-"

"But she's your sister Yang!" Weiss spoke up.

"Hey, I forgot that they gave us these school-issued scrolls." Yang answered back.

"Should we go look for her at the very least?"

"We should wait, she's old enough to look after herself. Maybe she's talking with Professor Ozpin or something." Blake chimed in.

"But what if she's-"

All three girls were startled by the sudden knocking on the door.

"Uhh, is this Blake's room?" A male voice echoed from behind the door.

"Should we open the door for him?" Yang asked.

"Could you please open up? These boxes are gettin-"

"Yang! Weiss! Blake! Can you open up?! My arms are getting very tired from carrying these boxes." Ruby cut in.

Blake made her way towards the door and opened it, only to be greeted by a familiar blue-headed boy. "Hey Neptune, what's with the-"

"I was- helping her," He strained to tell. Both Ruby and Neptune placed the boxes near Ruby's workshop which when they dropped the boxes, they made a loud thump.

"Whew, thanks Neptune. Hey where's Sun?" The brunette looked around for the monkey Faunus.

"He probably got lost on the way here." Neptune wheezed as he placed his hands on his hips trying to breathe, "Ruby what are in these boxes?"

"Various parts for something, I'll tell you later."

"Alright, I'm going to look for Sun. Take care." Neptune stepped out of the room leaving the redhead with her roomates.

"Soooo Ruby," Yang spoke up, "Where were you?"

Ruby jumped at the mention of her name, Yang would normally use her nickname and only her actual name in serious moments. "Umm, I was at the forge when I left."

"Uh huh, So who's Neptune?" Yang kept her gaze on her.

"He asked if I was the one who helped out the Faunus on the first day-" She was sweating nervously thinking that if she said something that her sister didn't like she would be in danger of invoking her sister's wrath, "-And his friend, Sun might have mentioned Blake…"

Blake's ears twitched at the mention of her name, she looked at the nervous girl then looked away trying to hide the blush that had formed. Weiss looked at Blake in confusion, but pawned it off as she turned towards the nervous-wrecked redhead. "And what happened next Ruby?"

"I-I asked them if they could help me move these parts to the dorm, because when I left I had a lot of time to spare so I started forging the parts that I needed for my weapon but I made all the parts for the blade and trigger but it was too heavy to carry on my own an-"

"Rubes, stop rambling." Yang ushered her to stop and take a breath, "Okay so what you told us so far is that you asked them for help to carry your stuff back to the room afterwards correct?"

She nodded in reply.

"Okay, then I have no problems with them." Yang looked at the boxes that were stacked against Ruby's door, "Did you really need help to carr-"

"Yes, I do. Not everyone has crazy brute strength like you Yang."

"Jeez Ruby, what's in these boxes?" Yang picked up both at the same time, not even straining to carry them.

"Weapon parts for my weapon, could you leave them by the workbench?"

"Sure," Yang stepped in the room with Ruby in tow, leaving Weiss and Blake alone outside.

"What kind of weapon would need that many parts?" Weiss asked the raven-haired girl, "I mean, smaller weapons would use smaller parts like daggers or pistols right?"

"It could be a sniper rifle, most small hunters or huntresses would use a sniper in contrast to something that hits light."

"It could. But what sniper would require all those parts?"

"That is something I don't know." Weiss looked like she was going to ask more questions until both sisters exited the workshop with Yang having a shocked expression on her face.

"Yang?" Weiss asked as she waved her hand in front of the brawler's face snapping her back into reality, "You okay?"

"I have seen things that would make even the third-years envious of," Yang whispered, "And that it's in the hands of the world's youngest student."

Both Blake and Weiss stared at her in confusion until they heard someone knock on the door again.

"It must be Sun, I'll get it." Ruby said as she walked towards the door. She opened the door and was greeted by a very familiar monkey Faunus.

"Hey Ruby." He groaned as he was still carrying the box, "Could you take this for me?"

Ruby took the box off of Sun in which Sun sighed in relief, "You know you have to show it to me when it's finished right?"

"I am, and so to all my friends too." She waved him off as he left the room, then she turned towards her roommates once more, "Okay, I'll start at the beginning. Do you remember when I was excused from the training hall?"

She waited until both of them nodded in reply before continuing, "Well I'm excused until the end of the week so until then I have to finish my weapon."

"But how did you even get enrolled without a weapon in the first place?" Weiss looked at the younger girl in confusion.

"Well," She paused for a while, "I- may have gotten involved with stopping a heist at a weapons convention earlier this year."

"You mean Techcon that happened last month?"

"Didn't the police take care of the robbers though?" Blake asked as she tried to recall the news report.

"Kinda… I was there with my weapon at least in it's prototype stage. I was originally going to meet up with one of the experts on weapon transformations or rifles but-"

"The convention was attacked and criminals were trying to steal Atlas Weaponry." Yang finished the thought.

"Exactly, most of the people there were running as the Atlas robotics were being destroyed by them. I would've joined with them and ran but-" She looked towards the ground for a moment before returning their gaze, "-so many people got hurt and no one was doing anything about it. I stopped running when that happened, I looked back and pulled out my barely functioning weapon and tried to save as many people as possible."

"Was Ozpin there when it happened?" Weiss asked as she was trying to put the pieces together, "Is that how you got in?"

"No, no. Ozpin wasn't there at the convention when the attack happened. It wasn't for a while until Miss Goodwitch showed up and helped resolve the situation."

"So how did you meet Ozpin?" Blake questioned.

"Afterwards I was pulled away from the reporters by Goodwitch and later talked with Professor Ozpin which then I was offered the chance to enroll here." She sighed for a moment then looked back at the three girls. For a while they all stayed quiet until Yang finally broke the silence in the room.

"Hey Rubes, Jaune and his friends invited us for coffee in a couple of days. Wanna come along?"

* * *

"Is that what she said?" Pyrrha looked at the blond brawler with an eyebrow raised.

"Yes, she said that she needed to complete her weapon before she can relax. Otherwise she would have to drop the combat class." Yang answered back after sipping her espresso.

"It's amazing how determined she is at staying in the class," Jaune replied as he gave Ren and Nora their beverages.

"If anything I think that she's overworking herself," Weiss spoke up, "For the past couple of nights, she's been staying up while trying to finish it."

"Really? She should at least get some sleep. If she keeps this up she might suffer later in the future." Ren followed up.

"We've been telling her that, but she still stays up." Blake recalled all the times the they all told Ruby to go sleep.

"If she's taking so much time to finish her weapon, then what is it? I want to know!" Nora chirped.

"We don't know, she never mentioned what it was to us. Do you have any clue what it is Yang?" Blake looked at the blondie but she sighed as well.

"Don't know, the only clue that I know of is that when we picked up Ruby from the convention she was holding a huge broken sickle."

"She uses a sickle blade?" Jaune asked.

"Maybe, that's the only clue that I have."

"Is that's why she isn't here? She's still in her workshop?" Ren questioned.

"Yep," Yang took another sip of her espresso, "When do you think that she'll be done?"

 _Hopefully soon_

Blake thought to herself.

* * *

 _Almost there-_

Ruby had assembled most of the scythe, fully assembling the head of the weapon and the rifle had been fully tuned out. The only problem at the moment was the transformation process between the compact mode and the fully extended mode. After it transformed once it locked itself into place and couldn't transform back without maintenance. She replaced the bolts and checked the joints for any jams or if it got stuck but couldn't find anything. She sighed as she slumped back into her chair, looking at the clock on the wall.

5:46 pm

She sighed again as she rubbed her eyes. For the past couple of nights she lost lots of hours of sleep due to the construction of _Crescent Rose_ and it finally felt as those lost hours are taking effect on her.

 _I'm never going to get this done in time_

She shook her head, trying to think of what to do next to solve the issue but with no avail.

 _I should probably get some rest, maybe I'll get this done with a clear head_

She stood up and made her way towards the door, she struggled to open the door for a moment and when she turned the knob she felt everything around her go black as she felt like she was falling.

The dorms were quiet during this time, most of the students were usually out at the forge or studying at the library. In Blake's case she wanted to sharpen her weapon and clean the chamber in her pistol due to yesterday's sparring match. She vaguely recalled Yang mentioning that Ruby was great with weapons and maintenance.

 _I wonder if Ruby could help with the fine-tuning_

She had gotten a couple of glances from Weiss and Noraas she left early to ask Ruby while Yang had a strange grin on her face as she left. Blake finally arrived at the door, giving the door a small knock. She waited a moment before knocking again to get the redhead's attention.

 _Is she out right now? Or is she still working in the workshop?_

Blake swiped her scroll and stepped into the room closing the door behind her.

"Hey Ruby can I ask y-" She stopped mid-sentence and dropped her stuff off to the side as she ran towards the collapsed girl on the floor. Blake turned Ruby over so that she was laying on her back and pressed her head against the brunette's chest. She sighed in relief as she heard her heart breathing and Ruby taking shallow breaths. Blake scooped up the young girl in her arms and carried her over towards her bed, laying her down gently. She looked back at Ruby for a second then shut the door to her workshop behind her as quietly as possible without disturbing the sleeping girl, she pulled out Gambol Shroud from her bag and started dismantling the weapon. Blake didn't know how long she spent in her workshop sharpening both blades or cleaning out the barrel and chamber until she heard the door behind her opened up.

"Little busy right now Weiss, or Yang," She didn't look back as she lifted up the frame of Gambol Shroud, closely examining the connector for the blade and pistol for any dents.

"Oh sorry for bothering you," Ruby began to close the door, "Yang told me you wanted help but-"

"Shouldn't you be in bed? You were passed out when I found you earlier on the floor." Blake continued with her work.

"I know, but I thought-" She paused for a moment taking a small breath before continuing, "I thought you needed help, maybe I should g-"

"Wait!" Blake quickly turned around to face the her, startling the redhead before she shut the door, "Um, could you help me with this?"

Ruby looked at Blake for a moment before giving her a small nod. She closed the door behind her as she made her way towards Blake, "What do you need help with?"

Blake laid down the rest of Gambol Shroud on the desk, pointing towards the pistol grip and the foldable katana blade, "The pistol and the blade were acting up for the last couple of days, I think there's a problem with the connector as it would slightly jam before folding properly."

Ruby picked up the grip and examined it properly, then she picked up the blade and tried to connect them. Blake flinched at the sight of Ruby struggling to assemble it, she usually wouldn't let other people touch her weapon but in this case Ruby was the exception if she would trust Yang about her being an expert at weapons. Ruby finally understood the mechanics and effortlessly connected them together, she pulled back the chamber noticing the slight resistance. Ruby quickly disassembled the connector and carefully examined each piece before she opened up a tool box. Blake watched as she was

already putting the finishing touches to the sword before handing it back to Blake.

"There, should be fine now." Ruby slumped back into a chair in the corner.

Blake examined the connector carefully, looking for what she changed, then she tried switching Gambol Shroud into both pistol mode and sword mode not even feeling any resistance. "Thanks Ruby."

"Anytime, glad I can-" Ruby stopped for a moment with a blank expression on her face then it lit up with a huge smile on her face, "Oh my Oum- thanks Blake!"

Blake looked at her in confusion as she saw her get up from her chair and towards the door, "Wait, what did I do?"

The redhead stopped at the door and flashed a smile at Blake before she exited, "Something was on my mind earlier and this helped solved the issue!"

Blake sat there in confusion as she watched Ruby leave, still trying to process what had just occurred.

* * *

"You seem awfully chipper today Ruby," Weiss and Ruby were walking through the hallway towards the Sparring Hall, throughout the whole trip Ruby was bouncing up and down in excitement.

"How can I not Weiss!" Ruby took out a lump of black and red metal that was attached to her belt in which Weiss stared at it suspiciously, "I can finally use my Sweetheart now!"

"Sweetheart? Don't tell me that you named it that."

"Of course not, so did I miss anything important for this class?"

"Well, besides the interesting performance in the being of the week all we did was choose partners in the arena and sparred against them."

"So nothing that important?" Ruby asked.

"Pretty much, come on we're going to be late if you keep on slowing us down."

"You're the one who proposed that we leave a couple minutes early during lunch, if anything we're going to be the first ones there." She groaned.

The rest of the trip was done in silence as they made their way into the Sparring Hall, the room was mostly empty as they entered with only a handful of students were present with Miss Goodwitch standing in the center of the arena.

"Ah, Miss Rose." Glynda's attention focused on the young student as she looked away from her scroll, "I take it that your weapon is complete?"

The brunette nodded in reply as she pulled it out to show to Miss Goodwitch.

"Splendid, Miss Schnee take your seat." Glynda typed on her scroll, bringing up the holographic projection above them with Ruby's profile in the left box. "Miss Rose you will be sparring in the first round, is that okay with you?"

"Y-yes, I'm fine with it." She tried to sound as confident as possible.

"Alright then, take your seat," Glynda said as the bells rang overhead.

Ruby made her way towards Weiss, taking a seat beside her. A couple of minutes had passed with students filling up the Sparring Hall, she spotted Yang and Blake giving them a wave as they looked their way. Eventually they all sat next to each other with Yang and Blake sitting behind Ruby and Weiss.

"So Rubes, you're going first?" Yang looked uneasy at the second empty box, imagining what opponent would she be against.

"Yep! I wonder who it's going to be." She also stared at the empty box along with Yang.

Blake was about to comment as well, but she stopped as her ears picked up on some of the conversations around them.

"Look, it's her again."

"Is she going to run off again?"

"Does the little girl think that she's grown up to be with us?"

Blake was going to keep quiet and ignore all of their comments about Ruby until a loud obnoxious voice boomed over the rest of the conversations.

"Hey everyone look! It's the little red brat who thinks that she's the teacher's pet!"

Some of the students laughed along with the person who shouted, it was no surprise when Yang and Weiss turned their heads they saw the very familiar grayish armor with Cardin in it.

"Everyone settle down," Glynda hushed everyone before looking back to her scroll, "Cardin Winchester, would you like to volunteer to spar against Miss Rose?"

"Sure I'll do it, so as long as she could handle a hit."

Weiss, Blake, and Yang glared at the idiotic student until he disappeared into the locker room, afterwards they turned their attention to Ruby who kept a blank face as she also made her way towards the locker room.

"Is she going to be okay?" Blake turned towards Yang who also had a concern look in her eyes.

"I don't know, we'll just have to wait and see."

* * *

Both Ruby and Cardin stood in the arena on opposite sides watching the timer ring down, Cardin was wielding his signature dust mace while Ruby still hasn't pulled out her weapon. She felt everyone looking at her, but she blocked them out as the timer was reaching the single digits. Cardin was wearing a stupid grin on his face as he spun his mace around in circles while Ruby wore a deadpan expression as she kept her right hand on her weapon behind her. As the timer buzzed, Ruby jumped back and extended her weapon into a sniper rifle, taking shots at Cardin while he tried deflecting a couple of them. One shot landed hit dead center in Cardin's chest causing him to sidestep to avoid a couple of shots, Ruby kept on firing while dashing around to avoid him getting closer making sure that she wouldn't be cornered as well. As Ruby tried to reload, Cardin slammed the ground causing a blanket of dust to form and cover both of them.

"All that suspense and her weapon was a sniper rifle?" Weiss spoke up as she tried to examine the battle through the dust cloud.

"It could also be something else." Blake responded, "The rifle did have a huge underpart."

"But what could it be? Most sniper rifles are limited with the weapons that they can transform into."

"Who knows maybe we'll see," Blake refocused on the fight as someone jumped from the cloud and onto the side of the arena.

"Nowhere to go, no one to help you this time brat," Cardin stepped out from the dust cloud, cornering Ruby who was looking for any possible escape routes past him. "Why don't you just give up and lose already."

Ruby suddenly stopped looking around and instead glared directly at Cardin, she loaded a new magazine with a cross symbol on the side and pointed the barrel behind her. In a flash she shot the wall behind her, using the recoil from the sniper to propel her at Cardin who was ready to swing the moment she got into range. Almost everyone looked away as they expected Cardin to slam his mace against the young student except for Weiss, Yang, and Blake. Everyone jumped as the room was drowned out because of the sound of metal clashing against each other. When everyone looked back, some gasped before the sight before them while the trio were left staring in awe of what they witnessed. As Ruby shot herself towards Cardin, her sniper rifle turned into a black war scythe with red tint. Both Ruby and Cardin struck each other's weapons but just as Cardin was about to recover, Ruby pressed the trigger on the hilt knocking Cardin off of his feet with the impact of the blade. He tried to swing at the her as he got up by immediately his legs were swept from under him and winced in pain by the impact of the back of her scythe slamming into his chest as he hit the ground. In a desperate attempt to flee from her, he slammed the ground again and hid in the dust cloud as Ruby jumped back from the impact.

"Tsk, always making things so difficult," She whispered to herself, she eyed the dust cloud looking for any signs of movement. When she spotted something move in the corner of her eye, she shifted the blade of the scythe to point upwards as a crescent spear then dashed at the earlier movements. She swung her scythe in a 180 degree arc, catching the poor boy on the other end and slamming him against the arena wall. As he tried to regain his footing, Ruby shot him square in the chest knocking him over and bringing him aura down to the red.

"And the match goes to Ruby Rose, maybe next time you fight someone closer to your level Mister Winchester" Glynda reseted the holographic board and looked back towards the crowd of students, "Whose up next?"

* * *

"Oh my Oum! I didn't know you had a weapon like that!" Nora kept on looking between Ruby and her scythe that she had completely extended and sitting on her lap. "It looks so cool!"

"T-thanks Nora, it took a while to construct it."

"How did you build it? Did you do it by yourself?" Jaune remembered the sniper completely transformed itself into a scythe in a blink of an eye then afterwards turned itself into a compacted lump of metal.

"It took a while to completely finish it," She recalled all the sleepless nights she endured to finish the prototype, "Afterwards it was easy to complete the finished model."

Jaune looked like he was about to go on until Pyrrha interrupted him with a question of her own.

"Where did you learn to fight like that?"

"Oh! That's easy, my uncle Qrow taught me at a young age and at Signal Academy before I enrolled here."

"Interesting, maybe we can spar against each other one day."

"Sure thing! Looking forward to it." Ruby closed up her scythe and re-equipped it to her belt as she left the Sparring Hall. She stayed behind to fulfill the promise with Nora about showing her weapon while the Blake, Yang, and Weiss went back to the dorm. The hallways were mostly empty as most of the students should already be back in their dorms or were out on the campus, she quickly made her way back to the dorms only to find the room mostly empty with only the raven-headed girl on her own bed reading with a stack of books beside her.

"Hey Blake!" Ruby closed the door behind her and scanned the room for Weiss or Yang before looking back towards Blake, "Have you seen-"

"They left a while ago, something about wanting to show Weiss a store or something." Blake didn't take her eyes off of her book as she responded.

"Oh, think they would be okay?"

"Who knows? Though Weiss certainly had an interesting face as she was dragged out."

"Really? I'll have to ask Yang how it went then." Ruby went into her workshop and mounted Crescent Rose on the wall, afterwards she jumped onto her bed and buried her face into her pillow. She stayed like that for a while before turning over onto her back and pulled out her headphones from her bedside drawer.

"Hey Ruby, why did you thank me yesterday?" Blake asked before Ruby began playing her music. Amber eyes drifted from her book as she looked at the redhead for answers, Ruby chuckled nervously at first before she replied.

"Well um, I had trouble finishing up Crescent Rose and... afterifixedyourweaponitthelpedmerealizewhereimessedup," Ruby mumbled at the end of her sentence.

"Oh, I didn't realize."

"Yeah, after I figured it out I kinda was too excited to fix it. Sorry for leaving without an explanation like that."

"Ruby I'm not mad," She placed her book on the side and placed her hand on her shoulder to reassure the nervous brunette, "Besides you finished it right? No more worrying about dropping out."

Ruby looked away from Blake for a second, then deciding on something then out of the blue pulled Blake into an embrace, "Thanks Blake, you're a great friend."

Blake sat there in shock, trying to process what was occurring at the moment. She returned the embrace and was very thankful that Ruby couldn't see the blush that had formed. "Anytime Ruby."


	4. Study Break

"Aw, come on Weiss!" Ruby tried to snatch the box that Weiss kept from the hellion's hands, "Please!"

"Ruby we went over this, your grades aren't improving and we have to do something about that. I will not have this team drag me down with them." Weiss coldly replied.

"Yeah, come on Weiss! She isn't doing that bad." Yang shouted from the other side of the room.

"And don't get me started on you, you brute." She turned to face the blonde brawler, who looked up from her scroll, "Out of all of us _you_ have the worst score."

"What?! No I don't."

Weiss pulled up her scroll and swipe down before turning it over to the blonde who's face paled soon afterwards.

Ruby sighed as she jumped on top of her bed. "How come Blake doesn't have to participate in this?"

"Because you dolt, her grades are fairly high."

"Speaking about our residential ninja, where is she?" Yang glanced around over her scroll.

"I believe she said something about going to the library earlier," Weiss tried to recall.

"Well I'm going to look for her." Ruby jumped off her bed but was stopped before she got out the door.

"Oh no you don't, you still have to improve your grades before the grading period ends." Weiss grabbed the brunette by her hood.

"But Weiss-" She whined.

"No buts, both you and your sister are going to study for the rest of the day."

Ruby let out an exaggerated sigh as her sister chuckled at the sight.

* * *

Out of all the places that she could've found at Beacon, this has to be her favorite spot. It wasn't as quiet as a library but it offered a nice view of the distant Emerald Forest from this vantage point. Blake was propped against a tree that offered shade from the sun but provided enough light to read her book. She sat in one of Beacon's various gardens lazing about as the day went on, distracted by the book in front of her. This garden wasn't as fancy as the others near the CCT Tower but out of all the others it felt the most peaceful. As time went on she marked her page with a bookmark before stretching her legs, she was thankful that she had the time to read her books as it seems that she wouldn't get the opportunity anytime soon. She sighed as her scroll buzzed just as she was about to sit back down, she briefly read the message before sighing to herself.

 _Ruby: Blake, can you come back to the dorm? I think Yang broke Weiss…_

She typed back a quick response as she began walking back to her dorm

 _Blake: Sure, be there in a bit._

The walk wasn't too long as the campus was mostly empty. She was a couple of feet from the door when she heard the frantic shouting happening inside.

"Yang?! What do we do?"

"How should I know? If I knew that this would've happened I wouldn't have done it."

"Oh man, how do we deal with this?"

"Deal with what?" Blake asked as she closed the door behind her. As she turned to face her roommates, she was surprised as Yang was holding the white-haired girl up while she appeared to be unconscious.

"Gah!- Oh Blake! Help us, we don't know what to do with Weiss!" Ruby looked at her with pleading eyes.

Her gaze shifted from the brunette to the blonde who was desperately trying to wake the other girl up. "What exactly happened?"

Yang's face immediately redden as Ruby broke eye contact with the ravenette. Eventually the younger girl spoke up breaking the silence, "W-Weiss was about to tutor us for the upcoming test but Yang didn't want to so-"

Blake raised a brow at Ruby who stopped suddenly.

"-S-she went up to Weiss and- and um-"

"It was just a kiss! Just one!" The blonde brawler shouted back towards the red and black duo.

"Yeah, that lasted a couple of minutes Yang!" She shot back.

Blake tried to keep a smile from forming on her face as she listen to the sisters' conversation, "So let me get this straight, Yang french kissed Weiss?"

Yang face reddened at that remark as Ruby looked between the two of them with a brow raised.

"French kiss?" She asked.

Just before Blake opened her mouth Yang shot up her hand to stop the ravenette from speaking, "We are not discussing this right now, so can you help Blake or…?"

Blake looked at the white-haired girl, deciding something as she looked back at Yang.

"You caused it, you fix it." Blake said as she turned towards the door, "Come on Ruby, let's leave the lovebirds alone."

Ruby looked at Yang hesitantly then nodded towards Blake, "Good luck Yang!"

"Traitor." Was all they heard as they closed the door behind them.

The both of them giggled as they strolled down the halls, after they were well far enough away from their dorm.

"So Blake?" The brunette spoke up after a short while, "What do you want to do?"

"Want to grab something to eat?"

* * *

 _This was a terrible idea_

Ruby agreed with Blake to grab something to eat and they both went to a cafe in Vale. It was a nice hole in the wall, not many customers were inside so that it wasn't too loud but at the same time dead silent. The red and black duo found a comfortable booth towards the back of the cafe, offering a nice view of the city around them. It wasn't until they both settled down that Blake began to overreact.

 _Wait, I didn't ask her out on a date have I?_

With that one thought she felt everything around her be different. Before when they'd entered she didn't pay the crowd around them any attention but now she felt as some were gazing over them, the ravenette began to feel uneasy as she would occasionally glance around. This was noticed by the young brunette in front of her.

"Blake? Is everything alright?" Ruby said quietly as she looked at the nervous girl in front of her.

"What? No, no everything's fine." She answered back too quick, making the brunette raise a brow.

"Are you sure?" Ruby didn't give her enough time to react as the younger girl jumped up from her seat and immediately grabbed her hand with her own.

Blake felt heat rising towards her cheeks as Ruby held her hand, instinctively she looked away from the red scythe wielder as she hoped that her voice didn't fail her, "Y-yes I'm sure Ruby."

The young brunette's gaze didn't falter as she sat back down. They both sat in awkward silence until their food was brought by their waitress. The older girl was thankful for the distraction. Blake ordered a darjeeling tea with a blueberry muffin while Ruby ordered hot chocolate with a couple of chocolate chip cookies. Blake watched the brunette consume her food as she blew on her tea. Ruby devoured her cookies in record time all before she had sipped her tea, just as she placed down her cup the younger girl finished her treats with a wide smile. Ruby didn't even bother to wipe the chocolate smear on the corner of her mouth as she went for her hot chocolate, when she looked at the ravenette Blake couldn't help but chuckle at the sight.

"What's so funny?" The brunette asked as she looked behind her.

"You have a little-" She gestured towards her face.

Ruby's eyed widened as she tried to wipe away the smudge on her face, educing a small snicker from the Faunus across from her.

"Here let me get that," She reached over and brushed off the chocolate from her mouth with her hand. When she moved her hand away from the brunette's face, Ruby immediately covered up her face with her hands just before she'd notice a small blush forming.

 _Dammit she's just so_ cute

The Faunus shook her head with that on her mind, she was very thankful that Ruby was still covering her face as she recovered from her thoughts. It didn't take long for the two of them to finish up, Blake paid for the two of them _although Ruby insisted that she'll pay for it_ and left the cafe. The sun was about to set as they made it back on Campus.

"Thanks for taking me there Blake," Ruby said as they both walked side by side towards their room, "I had a great time, what about you?"

Blake hummed in reply as they both stood outside their dorm, just before Ruby turned the door knob the door flew open with an angry pale girl standing in the door frame.

"Ruby! It's so nice to see you." Weiss said with a smile on her face.

"Uh- um hey Weiss…" Ruby immediately began to step away from the white-haired girl.

Even Blake felt crept out by the heiress' welcome, for the past couple of weeks she had never seen Weiss greet someone like this let alone 'smile'.

"Ruby! Get out of here it's a trap!" Yang yelled from inside their room.

Ruby's eyes widened as she tried to bolt from the door but was too late as the fencer had grabbed her arm.

"Where do you think you're going? You still have to study for tomorrow."

"Would you believe me if I said that Blake and I studied at the library?" Ruby said as she rubbed the back of her head.

The heiress didn't respond as she dragged the brunette into the dorm room while the younger girl tried desperately to escape.

Blake smiled at the sight as she followed behind the two, closing the door behind them.

"I hope you're prepared Ruby, you aren't leaving this room until you memorize the whole chapter."

A loud exaggerated sigh rang out from the brunette.

* * *

"Blake! I'm bored-" Ruby huffed as she laid her head on the nightstand, toppling a couple of pencils and papers off. "Can we go do something?"

Blake looked up from her book towards the bored girl using the book to cover her small smile as she took in the sight. "Did you finish yet?"

"Y-yes, can we please go before Weiss comes back?" She stammered a response, hoping that Blake would buy it.

"Nope, Weiss told me to watch over you until you're done." Blake said with a smirk.

"Traitor." She whispered, earning a small chortle from the ravenette across from her.

A couple more minutes passed in the small room, Weiss insisted on having Ruby work in her workshop as Weiss worked with Yang outside so that the sisters couldn't distract each other. For the most part their plan worked, the blonde couldn't get easily distracted as Weiss helped her study and the brunette couldn't run away as Blake kept her eyes on her. Another couple of minutes went by, both the brunette and the ravenette sat in silence until Ruby sighed in defeat as she banged her head against the desk once more.

"I can't do this-" Was all that Blake could pick up from the muffled speech.

The older girl checked her page and bookmarked it as she set the book down off to the side. She made her way towards the red scythe wielder barely a couple of inches apart as she gazed down on the her. Ruby rested her head on her arms, not daring to look up as Blake got closer. Blake stood there trying to think of a way to motivate the younger girl, after a while she got close to Ruby's ear before whispering.

"If you get a high grade on the test, I'll take you to a bakery as a reward."

Blake stood back and watched the brunette shot up from her previous position and immediately buried herself in the nearest book. The ravenette watched the scene unfold until she stepped out of the room, leaving Ruby alone to study. Just as she stepped out she was greeted by a very pissed Weiss who kept her hands on her waist.

"Blake, didn't I tell you to watch her?"

"Don't worry Weiss, she's studying."

"If she doesn't get a ninety percent or higher, I'm forcing you to help her study for the rest of the semester."

"Alright, but if does you have to teach Yang by yourself. Without me or Ruby to help."

"Deal"

"I can't believe it..." Weiss muttered to herself as she looked at the scroll in front of her.

"What? The test was easy!" Ruby beamed back as she held up her scroll for everyone to see.

"Wow sis, and I thought that we were sticking together." Yang spoke up from her bed.

"If that means being scold by Weiss and her threatening my cookie supply then no thanks."

"I can't believe it..." Weiss repeated.

"It's not that bad Weiss," Blake said as she tapped the white haired girl's shoulder, "Although it does mean that I won does it."

"What is she talking about Weiss?" Ruby set down her scroll and tilted her head towards the heiress.

"I-it's nothing," Weiss quickly replied, "Also congratulations Ruby."

"Aw thanks Weissy, still couldn't believe that I scored a thirty nine out of forty."

"I don't think Weiss did either by the looks of it," Yang said as she flipped through her scroll.

Before anyone got to say anything else, Ruby walked up to Blake who raised a brow at the brunette.

"So are we going to go or-"

"Yep, lets go." And with that the red and black duo left the room, leaving the white and yellow duo by themselves.

"What was that about?" Weiss turned towards the blonde who had her mouth wide opened.

"I- have no idea," Yang responded after a short while. "Soooo about the bet-"

"25 lien that Blake will ask out Ruby first."

"I can take those odds."


End file.
